I hope you enjoyed your first year in biomed because this year is about to get a lot more exciting. However, don’t worry because the Titans will help you survive the DAP project and 10th grade will be nothing but a blast. The DAP project may seem difficult at first but the process goes by so quickly that you won’t have anything to worry about. As current sophomores (soon-to-be Juniors) we can honestly say that the DAP is stressful, fun, and a learning experience. From this project we were able to learn of course the anatomy of the wrist, how to spend countless hours procrastinating, and how to climb over obstacles that seemed impossible at the time. This whole experience has been amazing, and even though we heard you won’t be doing the same project we wanted to leave you some tips!

Of course we wanted to be able to provide you with helpful advice to help you get through the tough times of the DAP. The most important piece of evidence is to have COMMUNICATION, without it all hope is lost. There will be many times when your group is all going in different directions, but you need to be able to sit down and regroup. Trust me throughout our whole project there were many bumps in the road, but we managed to get through them. We also want you to remember deadlines!! Yes of course we have always heard the adult talk about deadlines and how important they are, but we are warning you; turn things in on time! We know as a group you may put one person in charge of one section hoping they complete tasks on time. This isn’t always the case, and there will be times when a person forgets important dates. Just be responsible and check in with each other. The most important piece of advice we can give you is to HAVE FUN. Yes you will be stressed out, and probably will end of crying. But when the project is over you want to be able to have memories with your team. Create these special memories, and we promise your project will go by in a flash.

As our team has progressed through this project, we have needed many resources to help with the research aspect to back our findings and information regarding our prototype. Always use reliable sources when gathering data, specifically medical websites such as Mayo Clinic. My group also realized that taking a break every once in awhile is healthy for focusing, but don’t get too distracted. Our group utilized Haiku for the majority of our project, whether we needed additional data resources, testing information, or deadlines we used the Haiku page during our entire project.

The things that I have learned while participating in this project were that joints are very important parts of the body, especially in sports. Not only are the joints an important part of the body to protect but also the area around the joints are just as important because they are essential in aiding the joint’s movement (such as tendons, muscles, ligaments, etc). In particular since my group’s job was to create a device that protected the wrist joint I learned more about the anatomy of the wrist joint and that it is made of bones called carpals, metacarpals, and tarsals. The wrist joint is an Ellipsoid Joint and it allows motions such as flexion and extension. I also learned things in this project that did not have to even do with Bio Med necessarily like how to sew. I learned about the different parts of a sewing machine and the steps you have to take to be able to use a sewing machine effectively. I also gained different skills in researching and ways to research certain products/ materials that I used for my project.